Sheriff Clarke Takes Down Rowdy, Drunken Passenger on NC-Bound Flight

Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke on subduing a rowdy passenger on flight.

Next time you fly, you might want to have this man on your plane – Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, took down a rowdy, drunken passenger on an American Airlines (AAL) flight bound for North Carolina over the weekend.

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He joined the FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney to describe what happened.

“This goof took the cabin over like it was his private jet. He was moving up and down the aisles, he was in different seats. He was intoxicated, cursing and swearing. It was very intimidating for a lot of the passengers and the flight crew on that plane and so I kept my eyes on him the entire time… I did [what] was instinctive in me; that was to protect and take action. And I just had to pick a spot, I didn’t want to have to be grappling with this guy for an hour,” he said.

“When I told him to sit down, he wouldn’t. So, then I shoved him face down into the seat, pinned him against the seat and put one arm behind his back, told him to stay there [and] not resist arrest. I told the flight attendant to radio for police at the gate, to have the police meet me there – they did. When they boarded, I asked the officer who came up to me, I said, ‘give me your handcuffs.’ She did, and then I handcuffed him, [and] turned him over. I didn’t worry about jurisdiction or that nonsense. I had to worry about protecting people,” he said.

He also said the passenger personally berated him.

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“He was using profanities at one point, you know, saying, ‘Sheriff what the blank are you going to do about it?’...but that, like many other police officers, we don’t care about that. We don’t care about color and gender, whatnot, we care about what the law is, we care about protecting people, and that’s what I did,” he said.

Furthermore, Clarke questioned where the air marshals were.

“I know they don’t fly every flight but it would have been kind of nice to have an air marshal on there that could have either backed me up or I could have backed him or her up,” he said.

Sheriff Clarke said the man was charged with several misdemeanors in the Charlotte, North Carolina area and has been given a future court date.